SPRINGFIELD -- The grand jury considering charges against Jeffrey Lovell was presented with choices to indict for first or second degree murder or manslaughter, according to a spokesman for Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni.

Lovell was indicted Monday for manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a teenager who, according to court records, he believed was trying to break into his Chicopee home.

James Leydon, spokesman for Gulluni, responding to an inquiry from The Republican, said, "In regards to the charges presented to the grand jury in the Jeffrey Lovell case - The neutral arbiter, that is the grand jury, was presented with manslaughter as well as the both degrees of murder."

According to the Massachusetts Trial Court website "A grand jury is a group of 23 persons working as a unit to hear evidence that is presented by the prosecutor. Its function is to consider this evidence, then decide if enough evidence exists to indict (bring a criminal charge against) a person or corporation."

Lovell is slated to be arraigned in Hampden Superior Court on Wednesday. The manslaughter indictment means the grand jury did not feel Lovell should be charged with murder, either first or second degree.

Grand jury proceedings are confidential and grand juries meet in secret. Although there are grand jury minutes available to lawyers on the cases, they are not public.

Lovell, 42, shot and killed 15-year-old Dylan Francisco of Springfield on the afternoon of July 16, according to police.

The manslaughter indictment will mean the murder charge in District Court will be dismissed. Once a case is indicted in Superior Court, the District Court case is dismissed.

Lovell has been held without right to bail as most murder suspects are, but his lawyer can argue in Hampden Superior Court for a bail amount to be set now that the charge is manslaughter.

There is no minimum mandatory sentence for manslaughter. Under state law, a person convicted of manslaughter shall "be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than twenty years or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars and imprisonment in jail or a house of correction for not more than two and one half years."

In a grand jury, prosecutors present evidence (such as police reports) and testimony to back up the charge or charges with which they want to have a person indicted. It is not like a trial, where the defense presents a case or has a chance to rebut prosecutors.

The grand jury decides what the person is charged with by way of indictment. At all procedures once a case proceeds, judges emphasize that the indictment is just an allegation and does not mean a person is guilty.

Some judges tell jurors in their instructions at trial that the indictment is "just a piece of paper" and they must not attach any guilt to the defendant simply because he or she is indicted.

Francisco, who was supposed to be entering his sophomore year at Chicopee Comprehensive High School next month, was with two other teens on July 16. They were planning to visit a friend on Boucher Circle. But the three accidentally went to the wrong house, and began knocking on a door at Lovell's at 120 Boucher Circle home. Lovell's wife woke him up at about 1 p.m. and said someone was trying to break into their home, according to court records.

Lovell grabbed his handgun and looked through a kitchen window to see a teenager walking from the backyard toward the side door. The teenager started knocking on the glass of the locked door and said something Lovell said he could not understand, according to a statement in court records.

The door has three windows lined up vertically. The top window broke when the boy was knocking on it, said Leydon.

Lovell had called police but did not wait for officers to arrive. He shot Francisco through the bottom window pane, aiming for his torso, he told police in court records.

"Mr. Lovell told this party to 'get the f--k out' and 'stay the f--k out.' As the ... party continued to bang on the door Mr. Lovell stated that the window broke at which time Mr. Lovell raised his loaded S & W (Smith & Wesson) firearm and shot one round through the glass of the door," the police report states.

Francisco, of Springfield, was with two other Comprehensive High School students -- a 16-year-old boy and a girl who had just finished her senior year. Gulluni said they had been drinking before the shooting, but gave no details.

Court records did not explain what happened to the other teens during the shooting, but police said they were not injured.